Google Goes After Scraper Sites, Asks for Your Help

Scraper sites, sites that copy content from other sites, have been a thorn in Google’s side for a while now. These sites use their lifted content to either rake in advertising dollars, or artificially increase their ranking on search engine results. For everyday web browsers like you and me, they are an impediment between us and the information we’re trying to get to.

Google’s most recent salvo in the war on scrapers comes from Matt Cutts, who put a call out through Twitter for more information on scraping websites. Cutts linked to the newly minted Report Scraper Pages form for users to fill out which he says will help give the search giant some much needed data on their enemy. The form is simple and hosted through Google Docs. Users who wish to report a scraping site have only to enter the URL of their search query, the URL of the site, and the URL of the site where the content originated from.

Google says that this information will be used to test upcoming changes to their search algorithms that will hopefully pull the wind of the scrapers’ sails. That is, until they come up with some new tricks.

(Search Engine Land via Techmeme)

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Max Eddy